It's not a meme. It's just uncreative people following a played out trend and a good reason to quit reading the comments.

/at least the not news is still worthwhile.

You see, we come here to escape reality. It beats drugs, alcohol and lashing out in the streets.We keed, we laugh at our own fears, but we don't mean harm, this is FARK graffiti on our own walls, you're just driving by and reading it.

Read his bio and you'll see what a sad, pathetic place the US has become.

James grew up in Park Ridge, NJ, a suburb of New York City. His parents were Italian immigrants. His father was a mason, and his mother worked in the cafeteria if a local public school. After high school, Gandolfini earned a degree from Rutgers University.

"So what?", you say. A couple of generations ago, working class people could afford to BUY their own homes in neat little town, raise a family, and send their kids off to State U. Today the average college grad would be hard pressed to buy a home in Park Ridge, and most kids leave school tens of thousands in debt.

So how's that supply side stuff working out for you Joe/Jane American?

Horrible news...WAY too young...farkin 51...I'm 43, does that mean I have 8 years left???Well, I'm 165 on a heavy day...so, I doubt it.The poor fat bastard...that last pic of him on TMZ shows just how heavy he'd gotten.Sad...Great actor...forever immortalized...I think few people can say that...he can.Anytime ANYONE thinks Hollywood mob, they think Corleone, Scarface, DeNiro, Pacino, and you damn well better know they think Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini.R.I.P.

december:the ending is a constrained choose your own adventure. they laid the pieces for a handful of very plausible outcomes. pick whichever you want most and think of that as the real ending of the show. there is no one right answer.

it's not the most satisfying way to end a show, but it is original and consistent with Chase's non-handholding style of writing.

/compare with Lost -- no one fanboys don't gives a shiat about the show anymore given how bad butthurt they got about the ending was.

valkore:peachpicker: Few actors Italians in recent memory have embodied an Italian character so fully as he did Tony Soprano. I enjoyed him in everything I found him in, and I will miss his work.

FTFY.

If that's all you took away from 86 episodes of nuanced, full-spectrum characterization, I honestly feel bad for you. It was a brilliant sustaned performance, and I'm far from the only one who thinks so. From The AV Club:

"Tony Soprano was, like all humans, a complicated mess, and James Gandolfini made the character the most complete realization of that ineffable human condition in the history of the medium. Beneath the superficial exterior of the 'mob boss'--as shallow an archetype as was ever created--Gandolfini found bottomless layers: the anxious father, the affection-starved son, an alternately loving and terrible husband, a helpless romantic, a coldblooded pragmatist, an arrested-adolescent goofball, a raging bull, and on and on. That he contained these multitudes so effortlessly is what made Tony Soprano real."

the ending is a constrained choose your own adventure. they laid the pieces for a handful of very plausible outcomes. pick whichever you want most and think of that as the real ending of the show. there is no one right answer.

it's not the most satisfying way to end a show, but it is original and consistent with Chase's non-handholding style of writing.

/compare with Lost -- no one gives a shiat about the show anymore given how bad the ending was.

Crewmannumber6:Fissile: Read his bio and you'll see what a sad, pathetic place the US has become.

James grew up in Park Ridge, NJ, a suburb of New York City. His parents were Italian immigrants. His father was a mason, and his mother worked in the cafeteria if a local public school. After high school, Gandolfini earned a degree from Rutgers University.

"So what?", you say. A couple of generations ago, working class people could afford to BUY their own homes in neat little town, raise a family, and send their kids off to State U. Today the average college grad would be hard pressed to buy a home in Park Ridge, and most kids leave school tens of thousands in debt.

So how's that supply side stuff working out for you Joe/Jane American?

/RIP Tony, and RIP America.

Why don't you shut the fark up and go live in a favella in Brazil?

================

Shaddup, you mutt. You know why dere ain't no mafia left in the dis country no more? Because the farking bankers and Wall St operators stole everything for themselves. They're the real organized crime. Fugeddaboudit.

ParagonComplex:Carth: ParagonComplex: Carth: 51 is too young. Get in shape people being overweight is literally killing people everyday.

For real. Literally too young. People need to litereally get into shape. Being literally overweight litereally does literally kill people every day. Literally.

Also, talking about a person's weight the day they die literally makes you an ass.

Just like you can't talk about gun control on days of mass shootings right?

It's 100% certain that if a mass shooting takes place that a gun was involved. It isn't 100% certain that a person has a heart attack because of weight issues. Could have been heart disease or something else genetic. Even skinny people drop dead of heart attacks. I'd have said the same thing if you implied he was a drug addict or any thing else. Poor taste is poor taste.

But it is 100% certain that obesity increases the risk for heart attacks and kills thousands of people a year well before they need to die.

I agree we can't be sure Gandolfini died because of his weight but that doesn't mean it isn't worth mentioning. We can't be sure gun control measures would stop mass shootings but it is still a topic talked about every time there is a tragedy. The reason both are brought up isn't out of disrespect to the dead but to try and preserve the living.

As for poor taste? You've been on fark 8 years. my comments are tasteful compared to many in RIP threads.

MayoSlather:The Wire is overrated. The Sopranos is infinitely more watchable.

The Wire was underrated, actually, if we're sticking with the traditional meaning. You just can't bear to watch Baltimore. Don't fault yourself, nobody can.

The Wire and the Sopranos are too different to compare on one parallel field. As far as watchability goes, the Wire and Sopranos used similar hooks. The Wire had some more grounded and honed down writing, and the Sopranos would shoot into orbit every once in awhile, which was great. If anything Sopranos, Oz, and Six Feet Under are closer in style and dialogue. I'd only compare the Wire with Game of Thrones, and that's a comparison I'm struggling with nailing down at the moment.

I always liked those scenes in Sopranos where he would get all worked up about something and not say a word but just breath through his nose. He could carry a scene with his nose breathing. I might just go on a Sopranos marathon this weekend, I really miss that show.

Carth:ParagonComplex: Carth: 51 is too young. Get in shape people being overweight is literally killing people everyday.

For real. Literally too young. People need to litereally get into shape. Being literally overweight litereally does literally kill people every day. Literally.

Also, talking about a person's weight the day they die literally makes you an ass.

Just like you can't talk about gun control on days of mass shootings right?

It's 100% certain that if a mass shooting takes place that a gun was involved. It isn't 100% certain that a person has a heart attack because of weight issues. Could have been heart disease or something else genetic. Even skinny people drop dead of heart attacks. I'd have said the same thing if you implied he was a drug addict or any thing else. Poor taste is poor taste.

He was so good in everything he did, especially The Sopranos. He was a New Jersey icon. You can't walk into pizza place in this area without seeing a photo of the owner standing next to Tony and his crew.

To all of the assholes that use the stupid RIP meme, I hope someone is there to make jokes when someone you know dies, and be sure to come back to tell us how funny you think it is then. Yeah I know, welcome to FARK, so save your breath, idiots.

He sings and bangs a foulmouthed Kate Winslet in John Turturro's "Romance and Cigarettes", a strange and wonderful film, criminally overlooked despite its outstanding cast (Sarandon, Walken, Buscemi, Izzard, and many more).

spidermilk:Agreed. I'm sick of people telling me (as if I am stupid to eat healthy food and exercise) that they don't want to get old and die a slow death. So, they want to die a slow life while they are still young?? The other day I was running (not bragging, I'm talking about a chubby girl in a baggy old tshirt doing a 12 minute mile) and a guy yells at me 'What- are you trying to live forever?'

WTF?

Yeah that thought process is shown on Fark all the time as well. The plan seems to be they will remain in peak form until they suddenly die the day they hit 60, instead of aging like everyone else.

Wow, a heavyset actor had a heart attack! Well, it just HAD to be because he was overweight. I mean, of course it couldn't have been an existing medical condition that had nothing to do with his weight...no, of course not. Stay classy.

Jesus, there's a huge amount of Gandolfini I can recommend. The Mexican, True Romance (his questioning of Brad Pitt is magnificent), In The Loop, Zero Dark Thirty, even Burt Wonderstone. The man was really under appreciated as a comic actor who could bring black comedy to a part.

Carth:51 is too young. Get in shape people being overweight is literally killing people everyday.

Agreed. I'm sick of people telling me (as if I am stupid to eat healthy food and exercise) that they don't want to get old and die a slow death. So, they want to die a slow life while they are still young?? The other day I was running (not bragging, I'm talking about a chubby girl in a baggy old tshirt doing a 12 minute mile) and a guy yells at me 'What- are you trying to live forever?'

mechgreg:I'll take that one. He didn't die. A surprise twist where Tony dies is super hackey writing. And David Chase is a lot of things but he wasn't a hack.

I dunno, I'm no film scholar but this was pretty persuasive. Besides, wasn't the whole buzz leading up to the finale the question of whether he'd get whacked? The only "twist" here was the ambiguity. Plenty of people would have bet that he would be (unambiguously) killed as part of the dramatic conclusion to the show about mobsters.

Then again, I'm one of those douchebags who thinks the top falls at the end of Inception, so...

Sincere condolences to family, friends, loved ones, neighbors, co-workers and fans worldwide. I'm so sorry to read this news Mr.Gandolfini. I will prepare an lavish Italian meal this week end in your honor. We will eat, we will drink, we will toast to your memory. And we will shed a tear for your loss.